This chapter is brought to you by ShadowMajin

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Well, this was most certainly boring. At least she was comfortable, though that wasn't saying much considering where she was. A cheap motel in a rather seedy area of town was not the kind of place Videl had wanted to go to, ever. And yet, here she was, laying on her side and looking over some legislative mumbo jumbo that she'd rather take a drill to her forehead then read. Alas, that was where she found herself, flipping over a page she had just finished skimming, and turning her bored blue eyes to the next.

Of course, this was all for her job. Looking up, she saw the ever elusive Gohan, known to the world as Paul Kay. He was the sole reason she was here after stumbling upon him at the law library. A quick conversation and she had convinced him to take her back to his place to work on some research of his. On the plus side, now she could report back to Father about her discovery and intelligence on the guy. The bad side was she was stuck in this room until someone had an eureka moment.

The things she did for a paycheck.

Currently, Gohan was absorbed in his portion of the Malone-Engvall Bill, brow furrowed as he tried to make sense of it. It was clearly above his level of comprehension, though admittedly it was just above hers as well. Thankfully her cover as a law student had actually given her an edge on reading this stuff.

However, she was careful to note how Gohan kept sneaking peeks at her. Videl couldn't tell if he was suspecting her of something or what, but it was getting downright annoying. If the guy was going to do something, he should just go on and do it already, save her from having to read this drivel.

You know what? Enough of this crap. If prompting was what this guy needed, then prompting he would get.

"You look frustrated," she commented, watching him carefully for his reaction.

Gohan didn't respond to her at first, but a second later he looked up at her blankly. Then he grinned and admitted, "I guess I am."

"How so?"

The young man looked down at the page he was on and answered, "Well, it seems like this entire thing is repeating itself over and over. And there are all these words I don't think I've ever seen before, and I've had to reread several pages just to make sure I actually understood what I was reading…" He sagged his shoulders at that point, looking positively exasperated. "And I still don't think I have the right interpretation."

Videl couldn't help but smile at that. He reminded her of a first year law student, completely overwhelmed by the material in front of him. "That's probably because you aren't getting the right interpretation," she told him. "But that's to be expected out of a first year. All of what you said is standard practice. Since most politicians are lawyers, they do repeat themselves and put new tidbits here and there. Most people get bored with reading the legal documents and end up giving up, which is the intent."

He looked up at her incredulously. "You mean they intentionally try to make people not read their stuff?"

"Yep, that way they can slip in all kinds of stuff to give themselves an advantage."

"No wonder they have a school just dedicated to figuring this stuff out."

"Don't forget they want to pass these tactics down to future generations too," she joked.

Her joke didn't fly over with him as he looked dejected. "So how far have you gotten?" the young man asked her warily. It seemed like he was just as fed up with this stuff as she was. Great!

Looking down to her own stack of papers, Videl answered, "I'm in the hundreds. Page one hundred and twentyyyyy…four."

Gohan's eyes bulged at that, causing the dark-haired woman to laugh. It was comic gold to her, completely and utterly. Oh, this guy was funny, even if he didn't mean to be. "Trust me, it gets easier once you know what you're doing," Videl tried to soothe his fragile ego around her laughs, but only just managed to do so.

Hey, it was hard keeping a straight face with such a comical-looking face staring at you.

"I'm only at forty six and I had a ten page head start!" he exclaimed, further adding to her amusement.

"Hello? Law student," Videl reminded him. Pushing herself off her side, she moved to hang her legs over the side of the bed, looking at the youth expectantly. "What have you read so far?"

It took a moment before Gohan answered her question. "Well, as far as I can tell it's just placing money in different government programs. I guess this is some sort of spending bill."

The dark-haired girl nodded her head. That was a big reason why she found this whole thing so boring. She had never liked Finance Law, the entire subject just one annoyingly long end-around. If it hadn't been for Maid, there was no way she would've gotten out of that class in one piece. "That's what I got too. So far I haven't seen anything out of place."

"Not even randomly capitalized words?"

Videl shrugged her shoulders at that. "Depends on what words they are. What are the words you think are wrong?"

Gohan glanced down at his current page before holding it out to her. "Towards the top of the page, the word 'securities' is capitalized."

The dark-haired woman took the page and glanced at it. Sure enough, she found the capitalized Securities right where he said it would be. She wasn't bothered by it as much as Gohan seemed to be, but she might as well continue playing her role as an aspiring law student. Frowning, she asked, "Has the bill done this before?"

"Yeah, a couple times," he replied.

"Then the word is a noun of some kind. A title or a name of something. There's a reason it's capitalized."

This time the young man frowned, a bit more genuinely than her own attempt. "What could Securities be, then?"

Ugh, why me? Unwillingly, the guy was dragging Videl back through her finance class, and she couldn't kick or scream her way through it like last time. Dick. "Well, the only sort of securities I can think of concerning the government would be defense"-hey, she hadn't thought of that one now that she mentioned it. Please make this about defense-"and finances. Your portion could just be appropriating money to a defense project."

"And finances?"

"Securities can be stocks, bonds, or some sort of investment with scheduled payments," she listed off. "Honestly, there's not a lot it could be."

Gohan stared at her before turning his attention back to the page. He seemed focused on something for a moment before he suddenly got up off the bed and moved around it, taking a seat next to her. "Read this part here," he said, pointing to the section he was talking about.

Reluctantly, Videl looked at the passage. "Further appropriations shall also be compensated for services rendered in the association of Securities et al in accordance of previously invested liabilities," she mentally read. She paused for a moment. Something about that didn't' seem right.

"Doesn't that sound like they're giving out some sort of payment?"

Videl found herself agreeing with the dark-haired youth. "Yeah, it does, but I'm not sure what you're getting at."

When Gohan didn't answer, Videl looked at him. His dark eyes were glazed over as if he were lost in thought. The woman found herself wondering what was going on in that head of his. It was clear he was looking for something specific, or at least more specific than what he had revealed to her so far. She needed to know just what that was.

With a sigh, she noticed she interrupted his musings as he came back from having his head up in the clouds. "You know, this would be easier if I knew what you're looking for," she told him, watching for his reaction. "Can't you just tell me what's so special about this bill?"

It was immediate. Gohan suddenly put more space between them as he scooted down the bed uneasily. "Trust me, the less you know the better," he said.

Alright, enough was enough. Scowling at him, Videl responded, "What's that supposed to mean? You think I can't handle it?"

The youth backed down from her wrath, just as she expected he would. "I'm sure you're very capable-"

"But what?" she interrupted him. "You don't think I can cut it? I'll have you know I'm at the top of my class. And from what I can tell, you're just some first year student who's just trying to keep their head over water." Videl wanted to keep going, but she found herself losing steam. Perhaps she needed to change tactics to keep this tirade going. "You know, I don't have to help you, but I was nice enough to, and you have a crap way of showing gratitude."

Gohan winced from her words, and attempted to try and soothe her pricked ego. "Believe me, I'm very grateful for your help. It's just…this is very important to…umm, certain people. The type who wouldn't like it seeing the light of day."

Hmm, looked like she was onto something. Raising an eyebrow in disbelief she continued to prod him. "What, are these guys like The Mob or something? Nice excuse, but I'm not buying it."

"Trust me, they're dangerous people," he reassured her.

"Trust you?" Videl nearly snorted at that remark. "I just met you! How the heck can I trust someone I don't know anything about?"

Gohan gave her a helpless look. Oh yeah, she had him on the ropes now. Time to use some more of her ammunition against him...figuratively of course. "You're not really a student at the school, are you?"

The young man had the good sense to look guilty. "No, not really."

"Then what were you doing at the school? How did you even get into the law library? Only law students are even allowed in there!"

Gohan sighed. "I can't tell you. Like I said, the less you know about this, the better."

"How did you get in? Did you steal someone's school ID? Or did you make some fake paper work? You do realize identity theft is against the law, right?"

The young man raised his hand into the air, pressing them against his face as he poorly hid his growing frustration with her. "No, just listen to me," he pleaded.

"And why should I? You already lied to me about being a student at the school. Heck, I bet you even lied about your name."

"No, I didn't lie about that."

Gotcha! Smirking at him, Videl said, "So you did lie. By saying you didn't lie about your name implies you did lie about something else. So how much of your story is pure crap? Your claim that this is Mob involved or whatever already disproves that a teacher gave you this assignment, and it's very possible you're also making up the Mob cover-up too."

That proved to be all Gohan take as he exploded. "Alright! Alright, I'll tell you. Geez."

So this was what all her law professors meant when they said the best feeling ever was catching a witness lying on the witness stand. Or at least messing them up so much that they played right into your hands. Videl could identify with that feeling now, because she was feeling pretty damn good about herself now.

But then a thought hit her. Since she had been hammering him with accusations of lying, how did she know he'd really be telling her the truth? Aw, crap.

It was as if Videl had stumbled into a double-edged sword. She had used it to perfection to break down Gohan until he gave into her demands, but that very sword presented the troubling aspect that he could continue lying to her.

This did not bode well.

"Is this going to be the truth this time?" she questioned-nay, demanded! After all this work, she would not settle for less! "I won't stand for anything less."

See? It bore repeating.

However, instead of answering her, Gohan resignedly asked, "Do you know who Senator Ox-King is?"

The senator in questioned popped up into the dark-haired woman's head, specifically the moment half of his head exploded with blood. Yeah, she knew the guy...and now that she thought about it, so did Gohan. He had been there when that happened, after all. "How could I not?" she responded without thinking. It was half a heartbeat that she realized just what she said and quickly added, "His death has been plastered onto every newspaper and channel for the last week."

Gohan didn't seem to catch onto her mistake, however, as he once more gazed into nothing before wincing. Apparently, she hadn't been the only one recalling the shooting. "Well, I was doing an interview with him before he died. He's the one that told me there was something fishy with this bill."

Was this what he had been talking about with Ox-King before she fired? Oh my, the implications of his words were just too juicy to ignore. Widening her eyes, she asked, "You were there when he died?"

And Gohan went into full retreat. "No, I mean I saw him before he was killed, the day before to be exact. When I first heard he had been killed, that part of the conversation immediately popped into my head."

Liar. So he wanted to keep playing games with her. Alright, she'd play. "So you thought his assassination might have something to do with Malone-Engvall?"

"Yeah. The last few days have been a bit hectic for me, so today was the first time I've had to actually look at the bill."

Hectic? Tell me something I don't know. Narrowing her eyes, she pressed, "How do I know this is the truth? You're not lying to me again, are you?"

What happened next completely caught her off guard; she'd willingly admit it. So far Gohan had been cowering before her as she attacked him and his flimsy story. This time, however, the dark-haired young man shrugged his shoulders as if he didn't care what she thought about him. "You know, the door's right over there." He pointed at the door for emphasis. "You can leave at any time. It's not like I'll stop you. If you don't believe me now, you're not going to believe me later."

Videl looked to the door and back at the youth. For once, she had no idea how to act. She had been in full control of this conversation up until now, and out of the blue, this guy just turned the table on her. If she kept up with the direction things were going, she'd have to leave and promptly end their contact with each other. She didn't need Father's voice in her head telling her that was not the choice to make.

So, genuinely cowed, she replied, "No, no I don't think I will. Something tells me you're not kidding about this."

"Why would anyone kid about something this serious?" he questioned her, his face completely unreadable to her.

Videl wanted to make a quick response, but she couldn't. She didn't have a single thing she could say to challenge that. Damn, was this how he felt when she'd gone after him? What an awful feeling! The dark-haired woman could feel the heat rise in her face as she murmured, "I... I guess so. I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted, I guess."

An uncomfortable silence fell on the two. While she had no idea what was going on in the dark-haired man's head, Videl didn't trust herself to move the conversation any further. It was a foreign feeling for her, something she didn't like in the least. A quick glance to Gohan told her he had no inclination to move any further either, which just left them in this awkward stalemate that was beginning to drive her nuts.

So, she tried a less controversial subject for them to discuss. "So you think this Securities thing might be the part the senator was talking about?"

Fortunately, Gohan accepted her metaphorical olive branch. "It's the only thing that stands out to me, though I'm not too sure what it's referring to."

"Well, if it has something to do financially, then our best move would be to visit banks in the city."

"How many banks are there?"

So far, so good. Still, Videl felt she wasn't out of the woods just yet. It seemed like any offhand remark she could make could have her thrown out the door. Nervously, she took in a breath before she suddenly blew it out of her mouth. "A lot. More than we'd want to actually visit," she answered frankly.

The look Gohan gave her told her that he did not like that answer. "Maybe," she quickly spoke up, "maybe they're referring to a specific bank." Yeah, keep that up, Videl. Do not let him toss you out. Now...uhh, how do you find out what bank he wants?

Damn, she was beginning to overthink things. Videl needed to get back to the basics and return to the cool-headedness of Agent Devil, before this new, shy Videl screwed things up for her. "Do you have a computer in here?" she asked him.

"Yeah," he answered. Standing up, he walked over to a dresser where he retrieved a laptop. Returning it to the bed, he opened and activated it, waiting as it warmed up. The moment it was ready for use, Videl reached over and plucked it out of the young man's lap, placing it on her own. It'd be easier if she did all the work, or so she told herself.

Finding the web browser, she opened it and typed "bank securities" into the search bar. A list of names scrolled down from the bar, giving her options as to where to take this search. Looking through them, Videl didn't find what she was looking for and added Orange Star City into the search bar. The moment the search menu presented her with some viable candidates, she announced, "There's two banks in the city with securities in their names: Saving & Loans Securities and First Credit Securities."

"You think they might be the places the bill was talking about?" Gohan asked as he read the search list over her shoulder.

"It's a possibility, but I wouldn't rest all my hopes on them. If you wanted to keep something secret, you wouldn't make it obvious when you're writing about it. Hell, you shouldn't ever put something you want to keep hidden in writing. And considering these are politicians, they'd be complete morons to put it in a bill."

Ain't that the truth.

"It's still worth looking into, though," Gohan pressed, a determined glint in his eye.

"Yeah, it is," Videl agreed with him. "The Savings and Loans Securities isn't too far from campus, so I could meet you there sometime in the morning."

That startled the young man, which in turned surprised Videl. Had she managed to catch him off guard again? "You're going to the bank with me?" he asked her bewilderedly.

"That isn't a problem, is it?" she responded back.

"No, not at all. It's just…don't you have that assignment from your school to do? I don't want to keep you away from your studies with this."

Oh, she had forgotten about that. Meh, it wasn't like it was all that important anymore, in her opinion at least. Chuckling at that line of thought, she replied, "Oh right, I had completely forgotten about that."

For once, Videl wanted to curse her cover. Here she was with a high-profile target, and she was forced to leave him. Yet, she couldn't afford to raise suspicion with him, not after what had happened earlier. If she gave him anymore cause for concern, she didn't doubt that he'd up and vanish on her. She needed to start playing this game again.

Removing the laptop from her lap, placing it on the bed next to her, Videl looked Gohan in the eye and said, "I best be getting back to my dorm. It was…nice meeting you."

Gohan gave her a smile. "It was nice meeting you too. Thank you for helping out."

The look he gave her made her return the smile. It was hard not to. "It wasn't any trouble."

Another silence fell on them, this one much more comfortable than the last. For that, she was grateful. In the end, it was Gohan who broke this silence. "Good luck on that project of yours."

"Oh, thanks. Let me know if you need anymore help with this thing you're doing."

Then, as if they were following some agreement, they both stood up and walked to the door. Like a gentleman, Gohan opened the door for her, letting her exit first before he followed her. Considering that he had driven them here, he was gonna have to take her back to campus.

Yet, for some reason she didn't want to leave.

...

Videl closed the door to her dorm. Gohan was on his way back to his motel room and she was safely in the confines of her own room. She could do what she needed to do.

Phone in hand, Videl went through her contacts list and hit call on one of the numbers. Placing the phone against her ear, she patiently waited until she heard someone answer. "Maid."

"I found him."

There was a brief moment of silence before the blonde answered, "Found who?"

"Paul Kay. I found him. You'd never guess where."

"You have to be kidding me. Where was he?"

"In the law library. I just ran into the guy there."

"Get out! You're joking. I swear to Kami, you're joking."

"Do I sound like I am?"

Maid was silent for a moment before she said, "What was he doing?"

"Research on some legislative bill," Videl replied.

"Now I wonder why he was doing that."

Videl jerked her head back. Those last words had belonged to Father. What the hell was he doing on the line? "He was really focused on it," she managed to recover after a moment.

"So you say. What else can you tell me?" Father demanded.

"That he's currently living out of a cheap motel in Orange Star. I had the guy bring me over earlier; he just brought me back a few minutes ago."

She could practically hear the dark-haired man's approval. "Very good, Devil. So what's his next step?"

Videl took a seat on the couch, leaning back into it as she got comfortable. "He's planning to go visit a couple banks. Seems to think they're involved in some sort of conspiracy."

"I wonder where he got that idea."

The dark-haired girl was about to say, "From Ox-King," when she stopped. She hadn't revealed to anyone that she had seen Gohan at that office, and she felt that Father would have some very pointed words with her for not mentioning it. Perhaps this was one of those times where she needed to keep her big mouth shut.

So, instead she said, "No clue. Every time I tried to get him to reveal stuff, he'd shut down."

There was a silence on the phone before Father finally responded, "Alright, Wildcat is on route and should be in sometime later tomorrow. Tell Maid the address of that motel of his."

"You got it," Videl replied.

"And keep an eye on Kay, you hear me? I want to know everything he does, from what he eats to where he shits, got it?"

Videl raised an eyebrow at that. "You want me to tail him?"

The dark-haired man laughed loudly. "Oh, heaven's no. You're in a prime position, Devil. I want you next to this guy like you want to fuck him."

Uh, no. The dark-haired woman plainly remembered the last time she was expected to do an undercover assignment like this. It hadn't gone well in Father's opinion, though she had gotten the job done. "In case I have to remind you," she began.

Father immediately cut her off. "Devil, you will stay with this guy. You will help him investigate these banks of his. And if you have to, you will share a bed with him to make sure he wants to keep you around. Are we clear?"

Videl wanted to say anything except what she did say. "We're clear."

"Good. Now get to work, Agent."

The phone line went dead a moment later, the dark-haired woman lowering the phone from her ear so she could gaze at it blankly.

It looked like she was gonna have to dress up tomorrow.

…

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